


Those who fail to remember the past

by Entropy House (AnonEhouse)



Category: Drake's Venture
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2012-10-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 01:50:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/Entropy%20House
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reincarnated Thomas remembers who he used to be, but he can't find his Francis Drake, that's when he realizes that Francis wasn't reincarnated. He delves into the dark arts to bring his love back to life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those who fail to remember the past

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

If it hadn't been for Madame Bazonga, the crossdressing fortune-teller, catching the flu from a handsome young marine, I wouldn't be telling you this story. Well, also, if you hadn't got me drunk on that very fine brandy. That's a gentle hint, there.

Thanks. Well, I had invited a houseful of friends for a Halloween party and promised them some professional entertainment. At the last minute, you take what you can get. I wound up with a hypnotist dressed like Bela Lugosi going to the opera.

He wasn't going over as well with my crowd as Bazonga would have because he took himself too seriously. So I volunteered, expecting to be asked to bark like a puppy, and willing to pretend in order to get the party going.

I gazed into the quite nice aurora borealis he spun on the end of a silver chain and listened to him. And... I was suddenly aware that I was sopping wet, and stinking of 'blood' punch, with my hands fastened around the neck of Jim O'Reilly, who was dressed as Redbeard the pirate. O'Reilly was quite good about accepting my apologies - stress, overwork, too much punch, getting carried away with the hypnotist's suggestion that I had a past life... well, anyway, that killed the party and everyone left early, including the hypnotist who insisted on a full night's pay.

The problem was, I really _had_ remembered a past life. I'd been a soldier, an adventurer, and a man with really poor judgment in lovers. It was all fine remembering most of it, the _real_ problem was that I'd become fixated on my lover-the one who had me put to death, that is. I'd lie awake at night, remembering the last words we had in private together-and no, I'm not drunk enough to tell you that. And I kept thinking that if I'd said the right things, done the right things, he would have changed his mind, walked out of that tent and said that in the light of new evidence he declared me innocent. He was the only one who really wanted me dead. Well, there were others, but he was the one with the power to command.

My glass is empty. How did that happen? Oh, thanks. Where was I? Oh, yes, I was dead because I fucked up my relationship with him, basically. I think part of it was that Francis used to go paranoid on long voyages-I didn't know that until it was too late, but I read up on him after I remembered him. Am I making sense? 

So, anyway. Francis was looking for enemies, and I was expecting to be listened to, as a gentleman and a shareholder in the venture - really, I was a co-commander when we started, so that's not unreasonable? I didn't expect actual authority, because I'd commanded on land, and the sea is entirely different. But I did expect a little respect and courtesy, and not to be shouted down in front of the rabble and have my soldiers ordered to do sailor's work. If Francis had taken me aside and _asked_ I would have told them to do it. Well, I might have. The sailors resented my soldiers and all the gentlemen and _they_ refused to work alongside of _us_. They don't say that in the history books, oh, no, the lower classes are always abused and pitiful. You wouldn't think so if you remembered one of them starving you and telling you to eat his shit.

A man's got his pride, hasn't he? Just because I loved Francis, didn't mean I should lie down and be a doormat. So I complained. And Francis just... blew up. I don't know if his red hair had anything to do with it. I try not to prejudge people. But anyway, after that I caught his sneaking brother stealing from the general loot and I tried to ignore it, because after all, what difference did it make if he took a ton of loot from the hold and stuck it under his bed? We were probably a year from getting back home, he couldn't spend it or bank it. After a while I'd have pointed out gently that returning it and waiting for his share would be sensible. But someone found out-possibly that shit-stirring Ned Bright-and then I had to tell Francis the truth-I couldn't hide that the stuff was gone, and I couldn't very well blame anyone else. Francis... Well... anyway, things went really wrong, and they kept getting worse, until he set up a kangaroo court and had my head lopped off.

Is that bottle empty? No, good, let me have it. Oh, don't worry. I'm not driving home. Thanks.

So, there I was with all these arguments and ideas stuck in my head, and I couldn't sleep, or eat, or work because I couldn't tell them to Francis! I started researching past lives and all sorts of occult rubbish and, you know, I stuck it all into my computer. Oh, here's my card. Yes. That's me. Really. So you can see that I have plenty of money to spend on anything important to me.

My computer didn't care that the 'facts' I fed it came out of old grimoires. I have a really fine edition of the Necromicron- bound in goatskin, thank heaven, I don't think I could have stomached the... oh, yes, I'm wandering. Well, the computer gave me a spell to locate Francis whatever he reincarnated as. I was hoping he was a person, or at least a reasonably intelligent animal so I could explain myself and get that off my chest. Francis would have made a good dog. Or a horse, he'd have been a splendid horse.

But he wasn't _anything_. So, there I was, stuck for the rest of my life-I was only twenty at the time. Yes, I started my company when I was fourteen. Thank you, I'm glad to know I'm still attractive. More brandy? Thanks.

Well, that set me back a while, but there were other spells. Do you know chelated iron in a saline suspension works just as well as virgin's blood? And it's a hell of a lot easier to find. So I brought Francis back and used the other spell to find him. 

He was born in Scotland, this time. And fortunately, not as a horse. I kept a long-distance eye on him for twenty-one years. 

I could use a little more brandy. Thanks.

So, well... I came over here. On his twenty-first birthday I went to the pub I knew he liked. He'd told people he was going to celebrate there. And... I went in, and he was... kissing a girl.

But, really, that was all right, because I just wanted to talk to him, to set out the story and see if he would have let me live, if I'd done things differently. I wanted to wait until he was alone, but he looked up and he saw me. His face went white. He ...was so angry. I... couldn't face him again like that. I'd never been a coward, but... I didn't want to hear what he'd say, I didn't want to have to fight him, and maybe hurt him. God, he's so beautiful even without the beard... so I ran. I ran like a rabbit. I even left my wallet behind. Doesn't matter. I'll pay you back for the brandy... oh, you don't want money? Well, all right, but I'm probably too drunk to do you much good.

Come on...

Oh, no. Don't look.

"Thomas, you bastard!"

I told you he was angry. Wait, what, Francis, put me down! Ow! 

"Shut up, you deserve a proper spanking, and you're going to get it! Make me wait twenty-one years for you! Arrogant bastard!"

Ow. Francis? Would you have killed me if I'd told you I loved you?

"No!"

That's all right, then. Francis, I'm very tired. Take me home?

"That's what I've been trying to do! Damn. Well, maybe you'll wake up while it's still my birthday. I've been waiting a long time for my present."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for blakefancier for the 2008 DV ficathon


End file.
